From gamespy.com: The world is rife with properties ideal for the MMO treatment, but few are as suited to this style of game as Middle-earth. With enough built in lore to often rival humanity’s own storied history, any MMO developer working on a Tolkien-inspired game should consider itself lucky. Popular wisdom would dictate that, anyway. [More]
Category: Old Main News
Michael writes: Doubtless a number of folks in the UK may be unfamiliar with the rock group HOBBIT, but these four fellows have been expressing their admiration, through music, of Professor Tolkien’s Middle-earth since the late 1970’s. Now, two years in the making, their album ‘All for the One’ sees its realisation. ‘All for the One’ is actually HOBBIT’s fourth album being preceded by ‘Join the Celebration’, ‘Two Feet Tall’ and ‘Rockin’ the Shire’. After a somewhat extended absence from the music scene HOBBIT have reformed and the release of ‘All for the One’ is a collection of hitherto unreleased material. [More]
Fans of J. R. R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” have nothing on the devotees of Wagner’s four-opera “Ring der Nibelungen.” Wagner Ringophiles may be an even more fanatical crew than the lovers of those hairy-footed Hobbits. Take Dr. Sherwin Sloan, a retired ophthalmologist, founder of the approximately 300-member Wagner Society of Southern California and founding editor of The Opera Quarterly. He has seen the “Ring” cycle performed more than 70 times. [More]
Julie Perry Nelson writes: Most Americans are unfamiliar with New Zealand until you tell them it is where The Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed. Even those wonderfully choreographed scenes cannot capture the beauty of the country. I met my first Kiwi (New Zealander) eight years ago when I hosted her visit. She showed me pictures of her country and I was hooked. I decided that is where I wanted to go for my honeymoon. Now, I just needed a husband. Eight years later, and two years after we were married, my husband, Darren, and I finally could afford our dream trip. [More]
Weta Workshop is helping its less glamorous namesake, one of New Zealand’s biggest and ugliest insects. The Wellington special effects company responsible for the props and make-up in Peter Jackson’s award-winning Lord of the Rings films is sponsoring research into Mahoenui giant weta in the central Waikato. The research, comprising hours of night surveys in the Warrenheip reserve, aims to determine whether efforts to save the threatened species are working. [More]
TORn staffer Balin is at TolCon in Seattle at the moment. He was able to invite WETA swordmaster Peter Lyon (maker of Anduril, Hadhafang and thousands of other swords used in LoTR) and stuntman and size-double Kirin Shah to wander onto the TORn IRC server for a quick chat with TORn regulars to talk about their experience with LoTR and what they’re up to these days. [More]